- Gourmet dinners start with cocktails and appetizers followed by soup, salad, and bread. Next comes the main course of meat, fish, vegetable, or pasta, and several accompanying dishes such as vegetables or pasta, and sauces. The last course is dessert, generally served with coffee. A cheese course, sometime paired with fruit, may be served in addition to or in place of a traditional dessert.
- To make a gourmet dinner especially memorable, set a theme to select the recipes as well as the decorations. A steak and lobster dinner is certainly a gourmet experience around to which you could add mushrooms, baked potatoes, and a salad topped with fruits and edible flowers like nasturtiums. A more adventurous gourmet dinner could be a fondue theme. Start with a generous portion of green salad dressed with a light vinaigrette followed by a cheese fondue, meat cooked in hot oil, ending with a chocolate fondue for dessert. World cuisine makes for an even more unusual gourmet dinner theme. American diners love Italian, French, and Asian food. Try serving an Asian themed dinner that starts with an assortment of dim sum. Then serve bowls of Japanese miso soup, followed by Peking Duck, rice, and stir-fried vegetables. End the meal with bowls of fresh fruit that includes a few lichee nuts. Serve the meal on bright red dishes and give each guest a pair of enameled chop sticks.
- It is the little extras like the chopsticks that make the gourmet meal really memorable. Topping a dessert with fresh mint leaves and candied violets, or arranging the grilled salmon on a bed of herbed rice and enlivening vegetables with fresh dill delights the eyes as well as the appetites of your guests. Every element of the meal contributes to the gourmet experience from the table settings to the last bite.
